Race related themes have been widespread in films since the early days of silent movies. As the years have progressed, race related issues have been dealt with more openly and with more truth. Since the beginning of the motion picture industry, race related issues have been an important and much visited. During the era of silent films, African-American characters were actually played by white actors wearing black paint; as seen in the silent film The Birth of a Nation. This early film showed racial prejudice; however, it was a prejudice that was not recognized by those in the film or the writer.Glory was a motion picture that not o ...view middle of the document...
And this racism was propagated by the very men who were fighting a war over the evils of slavery. With all the racism experienced by this regiment, they still managed to be the first troop to attach Fort Wagner, knowing that this was a suicide mission. This movie showed us the prejudice that was present at that time in history and the truth about how the black soldiers were treated. Racism would come even closer to reality in the 1960's with such films as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.This movie dealt with the racism experienced by interracial relationships. The movie delves into parents reactions to their daughter wanting to marry a black man in a society where this type of relationship was still taboo. Still, there was no actual kissing or "intimate caressing" between the two stars of different color, but, instead, only the "suggestion" they were kissing, that only can be seen once throughout the entire movie. In the 2000 rendition of this same movie with Ashton Kutcher, the roles are reversed with the white man wanting to marry a black woman. We can see how far racism has evolved in that the black woman's parents are professionals who don't think the white guy is good enough for their daughter. In this situation, the white guy is being analyzed by the black parents and coming up short. However, we see both kissing, touching and an ending where the white guy is genuinely accepted by the black family. The evolution of interracial marriages can be seen to be progressing on screen over the decades in these two films.
